Allen: Fantasy football blues

It's that time of year again...the fantasy football leagues are being put together, preparations are being made for each league's draft. For some of these leagues, none of the participants know each other, in others, the league is a private affair among very close friends.

I participated in two leagues last year - one of each kind. In the anonymous league, I came home with the championship. In the league with my friends, I came in dead last. For the second year in row. The loser trophy (yes, we have one) didn't have to go anywhere. My wife hoped that it would get lost in our recent move, but its still here, a daily reminder of the humiliation of being beaten by all of your friends when supposedly your the one with the sports knowledge and the quasi-connections to people who actually know the game.

Actually, last year's last place finish is still in dispute. It was an eight team league, with only the top six teams making the playoffs. I finished in last place in the regular season, and thus did not make the playoffs. However, the program that we use also pits the two bottom teams against each other in the same week that the other teams are having their first round playoff matchups. In this game, I beat the seventh place team, and so, in my mind, that means my opponent in that game should really have the losers trophy. The commissioner has been dragging his feet on a ruling since January, and now we're getting ready for the 2008 draft. His silence on this matter has spoken volumes.

In both of these last two years however, I'm insisting it was all just bad luck. I mean, I can't really be that awful, right? I did win that public league after all. It was actually a mighty upset. Now that I think about it, it was really perhaps a bad harbinger of things to come, since one team had dominated that league from start to finish, go undefeated heading into the title game, where my team happened to have a better day and knocked him off for the title.

Back to my excuses. The year before last, my first pick was Tom Brady. I know...take running backs first...it was a dumb move, considering at the time that Brady didn't have any receivers to throw to. That was the Reche Caldwell season, you'll recall. But I thought my other picks were solid, but injuries and freak bad seasons sunk me. Last year, I had the second pick in the draft, and was tempted to take Brady again, knowing that he had Randy Moss and a whole new receiving corps to throw to. Instead, I took Stephen Jackson of the Rams. All publications said that this was the guy to take after LT. So I went with him. He was injured most of the season, and ruined my season. My quarterback, Carson Palmer, also had a down year. Maurice Jones-Drew was supposed to be a fantasy must-have, but instead Fred Taylor was the one who had the big year once again. These are all the risks of playing fantasy football, so I'm told.

Right now, with the drafts coming up, my head is a mess. There's no way I can be the laughingstock of my friends for the third straight year. I'm doing more research this season, I might even invest in a software program to use the night of the draft to try and get an edge. The guy who won the regular season in our league last year used a fantasy service to help him draft and to see who he should play each week. We all mocked him loudly, but I think secretly most of us tried the same techniques. Nevertheless, it was fun to rib him after his computer help failed him in the first round of the playoffs.

It's a humbling hobby, this fantasy football. I'm feeling the pressure to come through this season. Any tips from the readers would be most welcome. Send them to  .

Bruce Allen is the creator of Boston Sports Media Watch, which has recently been recognized by SI.com as one of the best non-corporate sports web site's on the Internet.